Thursday, July 10, 2014

THE NOMINATIONS AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A THICKY TRICK: Most of the Emmy nominations are pretty unsurprising, but a few things of note:
  • The breakthrough program of the year?  Fargo, which got its entire "regular" cast nominated and a bunch of tech nominations,  True Detective also did well, though wasn't able to get acting nominations beyond the two leads.  Other new entrants in the top categories?  Orange Is The New Black and Silicon Valley, which, interestingly, gets writing, directing, and series nominations, but not a single acting mention, not even for the late Christopher Evan Welch--this is displeasing.
  • Despite the strong season, Good Wife was unable to break into Best Drama, which remains a wholly cable/Netflix affair.  More sinfully, "Thicky Trick" wasn't nominated for original song.
  • Interesting potential twofer?  Allison Janney, who's nominated for both Best Supporting Actress Comedy for Mom and Best Guest Actress Drama for Masters of Sex.
  • Emmy continues its love affairs with Downton Abbey and American Horror Story.
  • Scandal does add nominations for Kate Burton and Joe Morton in the guest acting categories to a return appearance by Kerry Washington in lead, but no love for Jeff Perry (who certainly had a spectacular submission episode) or Bellamy Young?  BOO!

47 comments:

  1. No Tatiana Maslany! A shame.

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  2. Also, are the powers that be aware that this page redirects to an ad? (A 30-second Honda one I had to watch before it redirected back.) I suspect this is not intentional, so wanted to raise the issue.

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  3. Adam B.10:35 AM

    which page? This post itself?

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  4. What is it going to take for the Emmys to realize that Tatiana Maslany exists?!


    Thrilled to see many acting nominations for Orange is the New Black, especially Natasha Lyonne and Uzo Aduba.


    And I am really, really hoping that this is Jon Hamm's year.

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  5. Adam B.10:36 AM

    EGOT Watch: Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has G/T, can get the E for his songwriting for last year's T's.

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  6. I am appalled that The Good Wife did not get nominated for Best Drama. There have been few dramas in recent years that I have looked forward to watching as The Good Wife this year.

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  7. Joseph Finn10:43 AM

    Yadda, yadda, insert my usual grumbling about Emmy still not fixing the miniseries categories and allowing half of the nominations to be series.

    No Alison Tolman? Disappointing.

    Modern Family and Downton Abbey continue the annual tradition of wasting slots better spent on people doing good work now, not in 2011.

    Damn straight, voters, you got it right on OITNB.

    A special effects nomination for SHIELD? I like SHIELD, but that's goofy.

    No Hannibal. Enough said.

    Almost nothing for Brooklyn 99, but that nod for Andre Braugher is really deserved.

    Finally...almost nothing for The Americans? Just a nod for Margo Martindale.

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  8. He lost a Daytime Emmy for original song this year as well. If I were a betting man, he's got a better than even shot at a lifetime EGOT, with the O coming when In The Heights finally gets made into a movie.

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  9. Tolman is nominated, but as a supporting actress. I think FX wanted to keep the category clear for Lange/Paulson in the hopes that a win will persuade Lange to stay on for more seasons of "Ryan Murphy works out his psychosexual issues."

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  10. Dave S10:54 AM

    Alison Tolman is nominated. She submitted as Supporting.

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  11. Yes. Clicked over to this page from feedly - as I always do - and I saw the post, went to comment, then got redirected to an ad page [that counted me down from 30 seconds before the post reappeared].

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  12. Adam B.10:58 AM

    It's happened occasionally to me, too, in the past month. I think it's a Blogspot thing; "free" may not be completely free anymore.

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  13. Andrew10:58 AM

    Alison Tolman was nominated! (Supporting Actress in a Miniseries). Tolman and Hanks were nominated for supporting, Thornton and Freeman as leads. Interestingly, Freeman is up for both Lead and Supporting Actor in Miniseries (for Fargo and Sherlock, respectively.)


    I'm not sure why it was considered a miniseries, but TREME received 4 nominations (Outstanding Miniseries, Writing, Casting, and Sound Mixing).


    Annoyed that Russell and Rhys were overlooked for The Americans.


    It's a shame Emmy voters didn't realize that Maslany plays ALL the clones.


    But, I am glad to see that Schilling, Mulgrew, Aduba, Cox, and Lyonne all nominated for OITNB -- I was worried that it would end up like The Wire in not recognizing a great cast.

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  14. Treme is a mini this season because it didn't have enough episodes to count as a drama series.

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  15. Adam B.11:02 AM

    Well, neither did Mad Men, did it?

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  16. Per the Emmy rules, a drama or comedy series must have at least 6 episodes in a season to qualify. Fewer than 6 episodes, you're automatically a miniseries.

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  17. The Pathetic Earthling11:19 AM

    No love for Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister. I think he's been the strongest member of the cast the last two seasons, especially.

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  18. Joseph Finn11:24 AM

    Damn, I goofed on Tolman. Sorry about that.

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  19. Adam B.11:30 AM

    And this season, in particular, provided him with a real "shit, or get off the pot" moment. So to speak.

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  20. Duvall11:50 AM

    What is it going to take for the Emmys to realize that Tatiana Maslany exists?!


    She'll have to appear on something that isn't a sci-fi show made in Canada. Some Emmy biases are consistent.


    Jon Hamm's year was 2011, but Kyle Chandler won instead.

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  21. I don't know anything about this, but it somewhat surprises me that the GoT writing nomination is for "The Children" rather than for another episode, such as

    "The Laws of Gods and Men."

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  22. The Americans should definitely have been nominated for, inter alia: Hottest Actress (two nominees), Best Season-Long Murder-Mystery Subplot, Best Use of a Peter Gabriel Song (also potentially two nominees, depending on how the eligibility period works), Best Fellatio/Cunnilingus-Interrupted-By-One's-Child Scene, Best Tips for Fooling A Polygraph, and Best Dream Sequence. Some of the "real" awards, too.

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  23. Adam B.12:03 PM

    I believe The Children was the only one they submitted.

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  24. Adam B.12:04 PM

    Or he writes a song for Disney/Pixar.

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  25. I believe that's correct. They didn't want to risk vote splitting, so put all their eggs in one basket. (Also, HBO had a desire to spread the wealth and get nominations for True Detective as well.)

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  26. Right, but my point is: If I were submitting one, The Children wouldn't be it.

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  27. Joseph Finn12:11 PM

    Oh hey, I forgot my annual gripe that the Emmy voters forgot that Vincent Kartheiser exists.

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  28. Andrew12:32 PM

    Combined with the rape/not-rape controversy, it worries me that the producers aren't seeing the show in the same way as the audience. GoT definitely had better scripts this season.

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  29. Unless there is serious vote-splitting between Harrelson and McConaughy, it doesn't seem likely.

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  30. To make it messier? It appears True Detective was a drama series (rather than a mini) in part because it had a "created by" credit. http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/emmys-true-detective-fargo-category-explainer.html?mid=twitter_vulture

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  31. Joseph Finn12:53 PM

    I....what? Pardon me, I'm going to go bang my head against something now.

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  32. Adam B.1:07 PM

    And people feel like Bryan Cranston has enough gold already.

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  33. Dumb question: Was Tatiana Maslany submitted for one role, or multiple roles (on the same show)?

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  34. Cabernet72:30 PM

    I don't care how good Kyle Chandler was, I am still pissed he stole Jon Hamm's Emmy.

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  35. Cabernet72:31 PM

    Which is absurd. She was without a doubt the lead of that show.

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  36. Adam B.2:44 PM

    I was trying to figure out where Carrie Underwood could have been nominated for TSOM (theoretically), given that Best Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program was retired as category after 2008. Thoughts? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primetime_Emmy_Award_for_Individual_Performance_in_a_Variety_or_Music_Program

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  37. bristlesage2:58 PM

    I would think she could have slotted into lead in a mini-series or movie, though it appears that the show itself was classed as "Special Class Program", as on page 12 of the document linked in the main post.

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  38. Looking at the nominations ballot, Underwood was submitted in Lead Actress Miniseries/Movie. (TSOM: Live also submitted Borle, Benanti, and McDonald as supporting performers, and Moyer as a lead.) The Mini/Movie acting categories this year are nasty with Fargo, Normal Heart, American Horror Story, and Sherlock all in the mix.

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  39. Roger4:01 PM

    Not remotely a surprise, but Ozymandias! Yay!

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  40. Heather K7:46 PM

    This rule explains Sherlock and Downton as minis, doesn't it?

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  41. Downton has always had enough episodes to choose mini/drama. Sherlock actually submits as a movie, which is why the nominations are specifically for His Last Vow, and to Cumberbatch's disadvantage, because he has to fight with Mark Ruffalo, rather than the miniseries, where he'd have a better shot, and because you don't get to see as much range in just one of the episodes. (Arguably, Cumberbatch's best performance in Season 3 is the Best Man speech in Sign of Three.)

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  42. Benner8:15 AM

    *ALL* of the real awards, but certainly Russell, Rhys, and Emmenrich for acting. Throw a supporting at Paige, also.

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  43. Benner8:16 AM

    Good that Laverne Cox got a nomination -- i assume this is for season one, yes?

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  44. Andrew11:26 AM

    Yes, season 1 is eligible for this year's awards, season 2 will be eligible in a year

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  45. The Pathetic Earthling5:15 PM

    Yes. I know you aren't a book reader, but the last line in that scene was "Tywin Lannister did not, in the end, shit gold." Or something to that effect.

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  46. The Pathetic Earthling5:19 PM

    Ugh. Why in Westeros was the Jamie/Cersei rape scene controversial? I can think of a half dozen worse rapes than that in the show. And you can object to rape in GoT as a general matter, of course, I don't know how you can object to the Jamie/Cersei rape and not have bigger reservations about, say, Dany's forced marriage, Dothraki customs upon pillaging a town, Sansa's near rape by the mob... etc

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  47. Andrew5:52 PM

    It was controversial because the creators apparently didn't intend for it to be too rapey, but didn't realize how rapey it seemed. It was controversial because people involved with making the show looked at it and said it wasn't rape, while everyone watching the show looked it at it and said, "rape." It's not a show that shies away from showing people being horrible to each other, but generally acknowledges that they are. It's not the worst thing that the show's done (heck, it's not the worst thing that that character's done), but the trouble is that the creators weren't acknowledging that it is what it is. Acknowledging it for what it is makes the show better.

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